Floridata Article

Florida natives for your landscape

Beauty
Berry with its unbelievably magenta berries is an easy-care, Florida native
shrub.

In the article on instant landscaping, I described
a project where a landscaping company used only nonnative plants. I suggested
that gardeners would do well to choose native plants. Northern Florida and
many other regions are losing diversity in the habitat because of loss of
wild areas and because the same 20 or 30 species are over-planted in people's
gardens. This article provides suggestions, background, native plant lists,
some starting points when planning your landscape, and other resources.

Why diversity in your landscape?

The simple answer is that we need many different plants to provide habitat
for butterflies, birds, and other wildlife. More to the point, diversity is
important for the health of the region's overall ecology. (I've listed links
to detailed diversity articles below.); Far too many of our wild areas have
been destroyed to make room for that most damaging crop springing up with
increasing frequency: McMansions and their vast lawns. (More on lawns
in my next article.)

This is a huge issue, so what difference can gardeners make?
Little by little, one-by-one, we have the power to effect dramatic results.
We can enhance the diversity in our own neighborhoods by:

selecting a wide variety of native plants for our landscaping needs,
and demand native species when we deal with nurseries.

choosing plants suitable for the various microclimates on our properties
so we use fewer resources, especially water, to maintain them.

creating wild or near wild spaces on our properties and keep your cats
and dogs out of this space. (Pets are subsidized predators that
significantly alter the balance in the ecosystem.)Encourage
your neighbors to do the same

Button Bush has inch-inch globular flowers that attract a wide variety
of pollinators.

Why are native plants important?

The strict definition of a native plant is one that grew in northeast Florida
before Europeans arrived. Considering plants native to the whole southeast
region, ignoring our political boundaries, seems more practical. For instance,
the two Magnolias (Magnolia
grandiflora) planted by the previous owner on our property are compact
cultivars from North Carolina and would not be considered native here. The
Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea
purpurea) is a prairie flower native to one county in the Florida
Panhandle, but that would not stop me from planting it here in northern Florida
if I had the right spot for it. It would be a regional native.

Native plants provide food and cover for native animals. They
provide more variety in our gardens by offering myriad alternatives
to the oh-so-common cultivars and aliens. The biggest advantage to gardeners,
though, is that natives simply grow better here, because they are adapted
to our soil and climate.

There are some disadvantages of using natives.

They may be more difficult to find and more expensive.

Because various insects and other animals eat the natives, they tend
to look moth-eaten at times. Actually, they are moth-eaten and
butterfly-eaten: those caterpillars have voracious appetites, but most
plants have adapted to this situation, and will grow new leaves.

Natives may tend to be less compact and, due to their genetic diversity,
they may be more unpredictable in their growth.

Planning for planting

Ink Berry is a shrubby holly that does well in damp and partially shaded areas. Wildlife love its black berries.

Before you start, observe (for a year or more) the various sections of your
property. (During this observation period, if you have a bare landscape to
deal with, plant annuals and work with containers to combat the urge to produce
an instant landscape that you may regret later.) You will want to identify
areas:

where water stands for a day or two after a good rain.

that tend to dry out in the heat of summer.

where the grass is not growing well.

That you and your family use for outdoor activities.

That make up your views from the inside of your house.

Where you'd like to create more privacy.

Create a paper (or computer) layout of your land and write down
your observations during the year. Those notes to yourself will be important
as you formulate an overall plan. Choose plants that do well in the
various microclimates and remove those that are misplaced. A microclimate
problem we observed last summer was that the shrubs planted in the back bed
suffered because of the afternoon sun on that westerly wall. We relocated
the shrubs, and this year we planted heat-loving tomatoes
and peppers there. Without
that year of observation, we would not have thought to plant vegetables right
next to the house. The back bed is an example of a microclimate, as
the six-foot-wide garden is between a cement sidewalk and the slab foundation
which both retain heat. Also, the afternoon sunlight reflects from the white
siding. It's a hot microclimate.

Also, during this year of observation, roam around your neighborhood
and nearby areas to see how well different plants grow in your area.
Decide which landscaping ideas you like the best and watch those properties
throughout the year to see how they look in each of the seasons. Observe
also, how different plants look together. Some of my observations around our
neighborhood changed my original ideas for new plantings on our property.
After seeing how ratty the dogwoods (Cornus
florida) look around here, I'm not going to plant any even though
it was one of my favorites in Maryland. This is its southernmost range and
something here is causing the dogwoods too much stress: even the blooms were
mediocre.

In a landscape, you'll need to plan for three or four levels: full-sized
trees, small trees and taller shrubs, medium height to low shrubs, and low-lying
groundcovers. Creating this understory layer of shade-tolerant shrubs and
small trees beneath your trees provides cover for wildlife, interest in your
landscape, and ultimately, places that don't need weeding. (I'll include details
on this process in my next column.) You'll also want to plan for different
textures in your plantings. This means that you'll look for different sized
and shaped plants and those with various types of leaves. Do your research
so you know which plants grow well together, and how plants will look in each
season. Combine plants that bloom at different times in the year and plan
for some plants with showy fruits.

Plantings of all types look best in nonlinear, odd-numbered groupings.

If you are starting with a bare lot, choose an area where you
wish to plant some full-sized trees. Make sure this area is far enough
from the house that the trees, when they are full grown, will not brush the
siding or roof. Plant three or five trees in this area, and plan for
enough space between them for optimal growth and development. Then plan
for smaller trees and shrubs around the trees and finally, the groundcovers.
For instance, if the area is in a low-lying, non-lawn area where water sits
for a few days after a rain or next to a pond, your full-sized tress could
include these: Bald Cypress (Taxodium
distichum) 130', Water Oak (Quercus
nigra) 80', Sweet Bay Magnolia (Magnolia
virginiana) 100'', Red Maple (Acer
rubrum) 90', or Water Tupelo (Nyssa aquatica) 115'. The
smaller trees and large shrubs could include some of these: black Willow (Salix
nigra) 35', Button Bush (Cephalanthus
occidentalis) 10', Ink Berry (Ilex
glabra) 10', Groundsel Tree (Baccaris halimifolia) 13', Southern
Bayberry (Myrica cerifera)
40', or Beauty Berry (Callicarpa
americana) 6'. One obvious ground cover for a wet area is are ferns.
For a dry area, you'd have different set of possibilities.

If you have existing, mature trees and plantings already in place, think
of ways to form planting areas around the trees. If you have a lone pine tree
in a dry area and grass struggling under it, stop raking up the pine needles,
and create an acid-loving understory layer around it: Dahoon Holly (Ilex
cassine) 30', Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginica) 30', Winged Sumac (Rhus copalinum) 25', and Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens), 6'. For the ground layer, you could use Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) 1' and Black-eyed Susan (Rudebeckia hirta) 2'.

Select the plants and arrange them while keeping in mind the ultimate purpose
of that area. If an area is to be used to create some privacy, you may
wish to add height with a ridge: that ridge, especially if you use sandy soil,
will become a drier microclimate where water drains away. Use lots of
compost for each plant, but you'll still need drought-tolerant, evergreen
shrubs and small trees to provide your screen. If an area will be the
vista from your living room, you'll want to take more care to provide flowers,
fruit, and varying textures throughout the seasons.

To help with your landscaping, befriend a good gardener in your
neighborhood or someone knowledgeable at a local nursery (not a big box store)
to help with identifications and other information. As you know, gardening
is a process and patience is rewarded.

While I've discussed the small, garden-by-garden agenda here, I urge gardeners
to get involved in regional initiatives to increase your community's use of
native plants, and preservation of open space. Also join your local native
plant society for finding like-minded people who are doing great things: for
Florida see www.FNPS.org.

Resources:

- This source for native wildflower seeds includes detailed
information on natives. While geared for prairie restoration, it still
presents information relevant for northern Florida including, planting instructions,
environmental preferences, suggested plant groupings, native ranges, and more:
www.easywildflowers.com
- Florida Backyard has plant lists including those to attract
birds and wildlife: www.nsis.org/
- Florida Native Plant Society has 37 chapters throughout Florida:
www.fnps.org/
- The Florida Association of Native Nurseries list plants and
members: www.plantrealflorida.org/.
- National Wildlife Federation has information on native gardening
projects including information on projects for schools and certification for
school yards and your own backyard: www.enature.com/gardening/.
- University of Florida Extension Service's website includes
many articles and extensive lists with detailed information on the characteristics
and environmental needs for each plant. More accurate and impartial
than some other sites that may be produced to sell plants or promote certain
agendas: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Native_Plants.
- The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council maintains a list of exotic
pest plants for your reference: www.fleppc.org/.

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